God
is absolutely free in His acts;
He does whatever He wills and no
one can call Him to account for
what He does. However, He is the
All-Wise and acts with absolute
purposiveness and wisdom. He
never exerts Himself in vain and
never does a thing that is
futile or pointless.

When
a man looks at himself and
ponders over his nature, and his
physical and spiritual identity
and structure, when he studies
his body with all its parts down
to the cells, he will see that
he has been created for certain
important purposes and there is
not even a single useless atom
in his structure. Like man, the
normo-universe, the universe,
which is the macro-human being,
manifests great purposes and
innumerable instances of wisdom
in all its parts. There is not a
meaningless and useless thing
the size of even a gnat’s
wing.

Man
has a unique place among
creation. Whatever is in the
universe, God has placed some
aspect of it in man’s
creation. With his mental and
spiritual faculties he
represents angelic and other
spiritual worlds like the world
of symbols or immaterial forms.
What is more, by virtue of his
inborn capacity to learn and the
free will with which he is
endowed, he has the potential to
excel even angels. With his
physical or biological being, he
represents plants and animals.
Although contained in time and
place, with his spiritual
faculties and other powers like
imagination, he goes beyond time
and space. Despite man’s
matchlessness and indescribable
worth among creatures, some
human beings die at birth and
some quite young. In addition,
man longs for eternity and
desires an eternal life, some of
his senses or feelings are
satisfied with nothing but
eternity. If he were left free
to choose between eternal life
with severe hardships and
eternal non-existence after a
short luxurious life, most
probably he would prefer eternal
life with hardships. He would
even prefer eternal existence in
Hell to eternal non-existence.
God, Who is the All-Merciful and
All-Wise, did not condemn man to
eternal non-existence. Nor did
He give him the desire for
eternity so that he would suffer
the anguish of a heart-felt
desire impossible to satisfy. So
Divine Wisdom requires the
existence of an eternal world
where man will live eternally.

The
world does not suffice for
the right judgment of man’s
worth

The
world does not suffice for the
right judgment of man’s worth.
Although, physically, he is a
small body, through his mental
and spiritual faculties he
embraces the whole of the
universe. His acts do not relate
only to the visible world and
cannot be restricted by time and
space. He has so universal a
nature that even the acts of the
first man has effects on the
life and character of the last
man, on the whole of existence.
To restrict man, as materialists
do, to a physical entity and to
a very short part of time and a
limited part of space, is the
worst of insolence to man and
inappreciation of him. The
scales of this world cannot
weigh the intellectual and
spiritual value of the Prophets
and their achievements, nor can
they weigh the measure of the
destruction caused by
world-notorious individuals like
Pharaoh, Nero, Hitler, Stalin
and the like. The scales of this
world cannot weigh the true
value of a sincere belief and
moral qualities. With what can
you reward a martyr who has
sacrificed himself, his world,
for God’s sake, for the sake
of others or for the sake of
some universal human values like
justice and truthfulness. With
what can you reward a believing
scientist who has dedicated
himself to the service of
humanity and made an invention
from which the whole of mankind
will benefit until the Last Day?
It is only the scales of the
other world, scales which can
weigh even an atom’s weight of
good and an atom’s weight of
evil, that can do so.

The
necessity of man’s deeds
being weighed alone would
require an infinitely just
and precise balance to be
set up

We
set up a just balance for
the Day of Resurrection.
Thus, no soul will be
treated unjustly. Even
though it be the weight of
one mustard seed, We shall
bring it forth to be
weighed; and Our reckoning
will suffice. (21:47)

Supposing
there were nothing to require
the Resurrection, the necessity
of man’s deeds being weighed
alone would require an
infinitely just and sensitive
balance to be set up.

Most
of the misguided and unjust
depart this world
unpunished, and most of the
guided and oppressed depart
unrewarded. Such affairs
are, certainly, deferred to
a supreme tribunal, an
ultimate contentment

God
is not obliged to do anything.
He does whatever He wishes and
acts however he wills.
Nevertheless, starting from the
undeniable fact that whatever He
does, He does it for certain
purposes, we can conclude that
His universal Wisdom requires
the Resurrection. Is it
conceivable that the Majestic
Being, Who manifests the
Sovereignty of His being Lord in
the order, purposiveness,
justice and balance prevalent
throughout the universe, from
atoms to galaxies, would not
show His favor to those
believers who seek the
protection of His being their
Lord and Sovereign, who believe
in His Wisdom and Justice and
act in conformity with them
through worship? Again, is it
conceivable that He would not
chastise those impudent ones
who, denying His Wisdom and
Justice, turn against Him in
rebellious insolence? Since, in
this impermanent world, scarcely
a thousandth part of His Wisdom
and Justice are established with
respect to man, it is certain
that they are deferred. For most
of the misguided depart this
world unpunished, and most of
the guided depart unrewarded.
Such affairs are, certainly,
deferred to a supreme tribunal,
an ultimate contentment.

God
decrees: “Did you reckon
that We only created you in
vain, and that to Us you
would not be returned? So,
exalted is God (from
exerting Himself in what is
vain), the Sovereign, the
Truth. There is no god but
He, Lord of the Noble
Throne.”

It
is clear that the One Who
administers this world does so
in accordance with an infinite
wisdom. Do you need convincing?
The proof lies in the way that
the use and benefit in all
things is manifested. Have you
not seen how many wise purposes
are served by every limb and
bone and vein in man, by every
cell of his brain, and every
particle of every cell in his
body? Indeed, the purposes are
as numerous as the fruits of a
tree, which confirms that all is
arranged in accordance with
infinite wisdom. A further proof
is the absolute orderliness in
the fashioning of all things. In
short, there are universal
purposes for man’s earthly
existence. As is declared in the
Quran, Did you reckon that
We only created you in vain, and
that to Us you would not be
returned? So, exalted is God
(from exerting Himself in what
is vain), the Sovereign, the
Truth. There is no god but He;
Lord of the Noble Throne
(23:115-16), man has not been
created for mere play or sport.
The grave, eternal
non-existence, is not the goal
of his life. He has been created
for another, eternal life where
all his acts will have prepared
for him a very large, eternal
world full of either eternal
beauties and blessings or evils
and wickedness.

Divine
Mercy and Munificence require
the Resurrection

We
see in the world that the more
needy and helpless a creature
is, the better it is nourished.
For example, during the first
stages of life, a human being is
nourished in the best way and
with no effort before and
immediately after his birth. As
he becomes an adult aware of his
personal strength and
will-power, he begins to meet
his needs with great
difficulties in order to make
his living.

Similarly,
animals like wolves and foxes,
which rely on their power and
cunning, are barely nourished
despite much effort and toil,
while fruit-worms live on the
best of food and quite easily.
Plants, a kind of creatures
unable to move, take their food
ready without any effort. All
these examples, together with
many others, clearly show that
there is One absolutely Merciful
and Munificent, Who has rule
over the whole of creatures and
sustain or maintain them.

For
human beings in particular,
it is impossible to gratify
all of their desires and
appetites in this limited
life. Such qualities as
youth, beauty, and strength,
upon which a man sets his
heart, desert him without
even saying farewell and
leave behind great sorrows,
causing him to grieve. Their
full satisfaction will in
the Hereafter.

God
is eternal, so are His Mercy and
Munificence. An Eternal One
manifests Himself eternally and
requires the existence of
eternal beings. His eternal
Mercy and Munificence demand
eternal manifestation and
therefore eternal beings on whom
He will confer His bounties
eternally. However, the present,
material world is subject to
perishing: the death of millions
of living creatures every day,
the extinction of numerous
lives, is indicative of this
world’s final, overall death.
In addition, the material world
cannot receive the
manifestations of Divine Names
and Attributes in all their
comprehensiveness. Also, living
beings have to exert much effort
and struggle through many
hardships and difficulties in
order to maintain themselves.
For human beings in particular,
it is impossible to gratify all
of their desires and appetites.
Such qualities as youth, beauty,
and strength, upon which a man
sets his heart, desert him
without even saying farewell and
leave behind great sorrows,
causing him to grieve. Also, in
order to obtain, say, a cluster
of grapes, he has to exert
certain effort. Again, it would
clearly be a pain, even an
insult and mockery, to stop
nourishing eternally after those
who need nourishment have tasted
it. For a blessing to be really
a blessing, it must be constant.
Without an eternal life, in
which man will be able to
gratify all his desires
eternally, all the bounties and
blessings God Almighty confers
on man in this world will change
into pains and sorrows.
Therefore, after its overall
destruction, God will change the
world into an eternal one which
is able to receive the
manifestations of His Mercy and
Munificence without any
obstruction, in which man can
satisfy all his desires
eternally.

Divine
Pity and Caring require the
Resurrection

It
is through the Divine Pity and
Caring that wounds and wounded
hearts and feelings are healed.
Without this Pity and Caring,
you could not stop a wound
bleeding. Again, it is this Pity
and Caring Which make a patient
recover, stop the pangs of
separation, and change pains and
sorrows into joy and pleasure.
The same Pity and Caring come to
the aid of men and animals in
all stages of their lives,
especially before and after
their birth. In their embryonic
stage, the wombs of their
mothers become well-protected
homes for them, where they are
nourished directly through their
wombs without having to do
anything themselves, and after
their birth, the Divine Pity and
Caring send them the best of
food in the form of breast-milk
impossible to substitute with
anything else. Besides, all the
feelings of pity and caring
shared by all fathers and
mothers are a single
manifestation of the Divine Pity
and Caring.

This
material world is also
unable to receive all the
manifestations of the Divine
Pity and Caring

The
Divine Pity and Caring encompass
the whole universe, but we
encounter in the world numerous
wounds and wounded feelings
unhealed and numerous cases of
incurable illness. Innumerable
living beings suffer hunger and
thirst and poverty. As in the
case with the Divine Mercy and
Munificence, the material world
is also unable to receive all
the manifestations of the Divine
Pity and Caring. Especially the
incapacity of men to receive
those manifestations, in
addition to the injustices of
many and their misuses of their
inborn abilities, intervenes
between beings and the
manifestations of the Divine
Pity and Caring. Above all,
death is the fate of all living
beings; nothing else other than
belief in another, eternal world
can stop the sorrows it arouses
in hearts.

The
Messenger said: “God is
much more compassionate than
a mother. He does not throw
His servants into Hell
[unless the servants
absolutely deserve it].”

God’s
Messenger, upon him be peace and
blessings, was once sitting in
the Mosque, when some prisoners
of war were brought to him. A
woman who was looking for
something in a great anxiety
drew the Messenger’s attention
to herself. Which boy the woman
saw, she took him to her breast
and then left him. She must have
been looking for her son. At
last she found him and embraced
him, pressing him to her breast
and caressing him with a great
affection. This caused the
Messenger to burst into tears
and pointing to the woman, he
asked his Companions around him:

-
Do you see that woman? Does
she throw that child in her
arms into Hell?

‘No!’,
the Companions answered, and
the Messenger, upon him be
peace and blessings, added:

-
God is much more
compassionate than that
woman. He does not throw His
servants into Hell [unless
the servants absolutely
deserve it].1

The
other world is the world where
the Divine Pity and Caring
will be manifested fully
without any intervention and
without allowing any sorrows
and pains.

Divine
Justice and Honor require the
Resurrection

God’s
Names and Attributes are all
absolute and eternal. As He is
absolutely and eternally
Merciful, Relenting and
Forgiving, so He is, again,
absolutely and eternally
Mighty, Just and Dignified.
Although His Mercy embraces
all things (7:156) and, as
is stated in a hadith, exceeds
His wrath, some people commit
such great crimes and sins
(like unbelief and associating
partners with God) that their
due can only be eternal
punishment. Besides, despite
the Divine declaration that whoever
kills a human being unjustly,
it is as if he killed all
mankind (5:32), especially
in a world like today’s
where might is right is the
rule, thousands of innocent
people are killed almost every
day and many others are
wronged and deprived of their
basic human rights, and,
worse, a great many of the
most abominable sins and
injustices go unpunished. When
death comes, it does not
discriminate between the
oppressed and oppressors, the
innocent and criminals, and
between the sinless and
sinful. This means that, as is
the case in this world where
little crimes are judged in
small courts while great ones
are referred to supreme
tribunals, such great crimes
and sins as unbelief and
associating partners with God
and murder and oppression, are
postponed to a day when God
will judge them with His
absolute Justice.

A
day will certainly come when
those who gave God the thanks
due to Him will be welcomed
with, Eat and drink to your
hearts content because of what
you did in days gone by
(69:24) and Peace be upon
you! You have done well. Enter
here to dwell forever
(39:73), to a place where God
has prepared for them things
no eyes ever saw, no ears ever
heard, and no mind ever
conceived,2 while the others
who tainted the world with the
blood they shed and the sins
and crimes they committed,
will be thrown into Hell with
the shout Enter (through)
the gates of Hell to dwell
therein forever: what an evil
abode for the arrogant!
(39:72).

Divine
Grace and Generosity require
the Resurrection

A
saint asks Harun al-Rashid,
one of the ‘Abbasid caliphs:

-
If you desperately
needed a glass of water,
would you abandon your
kingdom in return for
it?

-
Yes, I would, Harun
answers.

-
If you could not
discharge it from your
body, would you again
give up kingdom in order
to be able to discharge
it?

-
Yes, I would, Harun
answers again.

The
saint concludes:

-
Then, all of your wealth
and kingdom consist in a
glass of water.

Whatever
we need, we are provided
with it, for almost
nothing. The more
necessary for life a thing
is, the more abundant it
is in nature and cheaper.

Whatever
we need, we are provided with
it, for almost nothing. The
more necessary for life a
thing is, the more abundant it
is in nature and cheaper. What
we need the most is air, which
is for nothing. Then comes
water and it is almost for
nothing. God sends it out of
His infinite Mercy. We have no
part in or contribution to its
formation. Afterwards, we
direly need heat and light,
and the sun sends them for
nothing again. As for the
other bounties we are blessed
with, they are extremely
cheap. (Poor man! He is blind
to all these miraculous acts
of God and demands to see a
miracle in order to believe in
God!) Whatever we do to
procure them, is only exerting
a little effort. However, if
all these bounties or
blessings were not going to be
given to us eternally and in a
much better fashion, fear of
death would change them into
poison whenever we take a
morsel or a sip or a molecule
of them.

Thanks
to God’s being eternal with
all His Names and Attributes,
He will provide us eternally
and without asking us to make
any effort with ever better
forms of all the bounties He
bestows on us here in this
world, and thus does not
change His blessings into
pains because of fear of
death, and makes death into a
changing of worlds, a
discharge from worldly duties,
an invitation to the eternal
abode He has prepared for us,
and a passport to go to that
abode.

Divine
Beauty requires the
Resurrection

Listen
to the singing of birds on a
spring morning, or the murmur
of a brook flowing through
green fields or deep valleys.
Look on the beauty of
spectacular green plains and
trees in blossom and watch the
sunrise or sunset and the full
moon on a cloudless, clear
night. All these spectacles
together with many others
which God presents to our
senses, are only a single
gleam of God’s absolute and
eternal Beauty manifested
through many veils. By
observing such manifestations
of His Beauty, through which
He wants to make Him known to
us, we go into raptures.

True
blessing is that which is
eternal. That is why God,
the Eternally Beautiful
One, shows us in the world
only the shadows of His
Beauty in order to arouse
in us a desire for Its
eternal and perfect
manifestations.

Any
blessings which are not
eternal leave unbearable pains
in our hearts through their
disappearance. If spring which
has passed would not come back
again next year, we would sigh
over it until we die. So, true
blessing is that which is
eternal. That is why God, the
Eternally Beautiful One, shows
us in the world only the
shadows of His Beauty in order
to arouse in us a desire for
Its eternal and perfect
manifestations. What is more,
He will allow us some form of
seeing Him in Paradise in a
manner free from any
qualitative and quantitative
measures or dimensions.

On
that day there will be
shining faces, gazing
upon their Lord.
(75:22-3)

The
harmonious mutual relation
between thingsand
man is indicative of the
Resurrection

There
is a basic relation between
man and the outer world. When
man comes into the world, he
finds himself enveloped by an
amiable environment. He is
born equipped with senses and
there are things in the outer
world to be sensed by him.
Also, he has feelings like
compassion, pity and caring,
and love, and there are many
things in the world to be
loved, cared for and pitied.
He feels hungry and thirsty,
and he feels cold and heat.
Fortunately, he finds the
things with which he will
satisfy his hunger and thirst
and with which he will warm
and cool himself either
already prepared before or in
a form he can obtain with a
slight effort.

As
an example, let us take an
apple. With its color and
beauty, it appeals to our eyes
and our sense of beauty. With
its taste, it addresses itself
to our sense of taste. With
the vitamins it has, it
nourishes our bodies. Despite
our need of its nutriments, if
it were something ugly and
tasteless, we would be
disgusted with it and so
deprived of its nourishment.

All
this, together with many other
‘natural’ facts, clearly
shows that there is One Who
has both created man and
prepared the environment for
him, and that One Who has
infinite Knowledge and Power.
He knows man with all his
needs, capacities, and
qualities, as He knows ‘nature’
down to its minutest building
blocks which are atoms or
particles or quarks.

As
another example, reproduction
depends on mutual love and
attraction between sexes. If
God, the One Who has both
created man and prepared the
environment for him, had not
placed in the male and female
love for and attraction
towards each other, and if He
had not given them the wage of
reproduction in advance as
sexual pleasure, and again if
He had not ingrained in them a
great love and caring for
their offspring, mankind would
not have reproduced and would
have become an extinct race,
consisting of only the first
male and female.

Death
puts an end to all
pleasures and makes
everything as if it had
never been. Then, were it
not for the Resurrection,
this life would be reduced
to a meaningless
plaything, leaving behind
sufferings and pains.

Death
puts an end to all pleasures
and makes everything as if it
had never been. Then, were it
not for the Resurrection, this
life would be reduced to a
meaningless plaything, leaving
behind sufferings and pains.
However, this world is a
shadowy miniature of the
other, eternal one. The
bounties God bestows on us
here are only examples of
their eternal and much better
forms in the eternal world.
God grants them to us to urge
us to act in order to deserve
them. The Quran declares:

Give
glad tidings to those
who believe and do good
deeds. For them there
will be Gardens beneath
which rivers flow. Every
time they are served
with the fruits therein,
they will say, ‘This
is what was given to us
aforetime!’ They shall
be given in perfect
semblance. And there
will be pure spouses for
them, and they will
abide there for ever.
(2:25)

Also,
all joys, beauties, acts of
rewarding, and instances of
happiness in this world point
to their perfect and eternal
forms in Paradise, while
pains, punishments, and
instances of ugliness and
unhappiness are a sign of
their likes in Hell. Actually,
God will build the other world
out of the bulk of the
material of this one, which He
will have made suited to that
purpose through the great
upheavals of Doomsday. Thus,
the interrelation between
things in the world and
between this one and the other
decisively points to the
Resurrection.

Recording
and preservation in the world
point to the Resurrection

Nothing
disappears altogether from the
world. While every word and
act of man can be recorded on
tapes and preserved, why
should we not be able to grasp
that God records the words and
deeds of mankind in some way
not, as yet, known to us?
Advances in sciences and
technology provide every day
some new evidence for the
existence and Unity of God and
affirm, together with the
Divine origin of the Qur’an,
the truth of Islamic tenets of
belief. This is, in fact, what
the Qur’an declared
centuries ago:

We
shall show them Our
signs in the outer world
and within themselves
until it will be
manifest to them that
(the Qur’an) is the
truth. Does not your
Lord suffice, since He
is witness over all
things? (41:53)

If
one is sincere in searching
for the truth and has the ‘power
of sight’ to see the truth
as it is, if one is not
blinded to the truth by
prejudices, ignorance and
worldly aims and desires,
every new advance in sciences
manifests the truth of the Quran.
We see in the universe that
God enfolds everything in such
small things as seeds. A man
is enfolded in a sperm or in
his chromosomes numbering 46.
If he had 44 or 48
chromosomes, not 46, he would
change into a completely
different being. Similarly,
when he has disappeared into
earth after death, again, the
most essential part of him,
which has the meaning for his
existence as a seed has for a
plant, does not disappear, and
God will re-build him during
the Resurrection on that part.
God preserves everything and
does not allow it to disappear
for ever. For example, when a
plant withers away in autumn
or winter, it continues to
live in innumerable memories,
as it goes on living through
its seeds to be back again in
life in next spring.

Just
as God preserves things in
their seeds, so also He
preserves sounds, voices
and appearances and sights
on ‘tapes’ or other
devices to display them in
another world.

Just
as God preserves things in
their seeds, so also He
preserves sounds, voices and
appearances and sights on ‘tapes’
or other devices to display
them in another world. Who
knows that the day may come
when these sounds and sights
are discovered while we are
still in this world?

I
remember once I read of an
experiment carried out by a
scientist to find out a
killer. The suspected persons
were brought one by one under
the tree where the crime was
committed. The tree, which
showed nothing unusual until
the killer was brought under
it, then began to. Somehow,
voice, manner, posture or
attitude, whatever the killer
had displayed during the crime
had been recorded on the tree.
Thus, God, Who preserves a man
in a sperm, a plant in its
seeds, and a hen in an egg,
and makes it manifest that He
records everything on
invisible tapes by enabling
man to record and preserve
sounds and images, will not
leave man, whom He has made
the noblest and perfect
pattern of existence, to his
own devices, or leave his
record to disappear; rather,
He will bring him to back to
life again in a different,
eternal world.

Divine
Power proves the Resurrection

Consider
an atom in a molecule. How it
is made up and how it
maintains its relations with
the other atoms is an
astounding miracle. Likewise,
the solar system comprising
the sun and the planets
resemble an atom: to create
atoms and regulate their
movements is not easier by any
means than creating the solar
system and establishing the
relations between the planets
themselves and between them
and the sun. Similarly, a cell
is like an autonomous
government: it has departments
of its own, each of which is
interrelated with the others
and operates under the rule of
a center. It has also a
ministry of finance which
manages its income and
expenditure. It is as if each
of the cells which comprise a
man’s body, numbering 60
million million, had the
intellectual capacity of the
most intelligent member of
mankind. Besides, there are
very close and substantial
relations between the cells of
a man, all of which operate
under the rule of a single
center, which is the brain.

For
the Divine Power nothing
is difficult, to create
and administer the whole
universe is equally as
easy for It as to create
and administer a single
atom.

These
are only a few examples to
understand the Creator’s
Power, for which nothing is
difficult, for which to create
and administer the whole
universe is equally as easy as
to create and administer a
single atom. If the whole of
mankind, who are the most
knowledgeable and conscious
species of creation, were to
come together to create a
single atom, they could not do
so. So, if that Being, the
absolutely Powerful One, has
promised that He will destroy
the universe and re-build it
again in a different form, He
is most certainly capable of
doing it and He will do it.
For one who does not keep one’s
word does not do so either
because he is a liar or
because he is unable. However,
God Almighty is absolutely
able to do anything He wills
and promises and He does not
lie at all. He is absolutely
free from any defect. So, He
will keep His word and
re-create the world after its
overall destruction.

The
Day of Final Decision
and Judgment is a fixed
time, a day when the
Trumpet is blown, and
you come in multitudes,
and the heaven is opened
and becomes as gates.
(78:17-9)

Instances
of death and revival in the
worldindicate
the Resurrection

An
overall death and revival is
repeated every year in the
world. In winter, a white ‘shroud’
covers the earth whose yearly
life-cycle has already
terminated in autumn. Nature
has already turned pale with
ever fewer traces of life. The
shell has fallen in and,
ultimately, trees have become
lifeless like hard bones.
Grass has rotted away, flowers
withered, migrating birds left
and insects and reptiles
disappeared.

However,
winter-time is not eternal, it
is followed by a general
revival over the whole of the
earth. When the weather gets
warm, trees begin to bud and,
wearing their finery, present
themselves to the Eternal
Witness. The soil swells and
grass and flowers start to
burst in on us everywhere.
Seeds that fell into earth in
the previous autumn have
germinated and, having
annihilated themselves, have
set out to grow into new forms
of life. Migrating birds come
back and earth swarms with
countless insects and
reptiles. In short, with all
its splendor and finery,
nature appears before us.

Consider
how the event of
photosynthesis takes place in
trees: the leaves of the trees
are lungs and they have the
power when in the sunlight to
separate carbon dioxide into
carbon and oxygen. In other
words, the oxygen is given off
and the carbon retained and
combined with the hydrogen of
the water brought up by the
plant from its roots. By
magical chemistry, out of
these elements God makes
sugar, cellulose and numerous
other chemicals, fruits and
flowers [all in different
smell, taste, color and shape
according to the kind of plant
or tree]. The same carbon
dioxide and water contribute
to the growth of innumerable
kinds of fruit, each of which
has a different taste,
distinctively its own. However
simple a process this seems,
if the whole of mankind came
together to produce a single
fruit, an apple or a cherry,
for example, they would not be
able to do so.

Respiration
costs a tree a high
expenditure of energy.
However, through the same
respiration, it has many times
more income and deposits it,
for it has a long night before
it during which the direction
of its respiration reverses.
During the night, a tree takes
in oxygen and sends out carbon
dioxide.

Consider
what deliberate results
the actions of an
unconscious tree produce.
Then ponder if it is
really conceivable that
something completely
ignorant and unconscious
of even its own existence
and which enjoys no power
of choice, is able to do
such comprehensive things
as require an
all-comprehensive
knowledge, power and
choice.

Consider
what deliberate results the
actions of an unconscious tree
produce. Then ponder if it is
really conceivable that
something completely ignorant
and unconscious of even its
own existence and which enjoys
no power of choice, is able to
do such comprehensive things
as require an
all-comprehensive knowledge,
power and choice. So, the
Power which attaches such
significant purposes to a tree
and makes it the means of many
deliberate results, will
certainly not abandon to its
own devices the fruit of the
tree of creation, namely man,
and will not condemn him to
eternal annihilation. God has
created man for lots of
deliberate purposes and,
without allowing him to remain
eternally mixed into earth,
will bring him back to life in
an eternal world. Just as He
preserves a fruit in memories
and through its seeds, just as
He returns the like of it next
summer after He has promoted
it to a higher level of life
in an animal or human body, so
too He will promote man to a
higher level of life in
another world following the
total destruction of this
world.

God
created the world while
there was nothing of the
world, and He creates man
while there is nothing of
him in the world

God
created the world while there
was nothing of the world, and
He creates man while there is
nothing of him in the world.
He brings together the
building-blocks of his body
from earth, air and water and
makes them into a conscious,
intelligent being. Is there
any doubt that a machine-maker
who made a new machine can put
and re-set in their former
positions the pieces of that
machine after he has broken it
into pieces? Or is it
inconceivable that a commander
cannot gather through a
trumpet-call the army he has
dispersed for rest? Similarly,
during the reconstruction of
the world after its total
collapse, God Almighty will
gather the atoms of man which
have mixed into earth and
grant them a higher, eternal
form of life:

Say:
‘Travel in the land
and see how He
originated creation,
then God brings forth
the later growth.
Assuredly, God is able
to do all things.’
(29:20)

Look
at the prints of God’s
mercy (in creation): how
He gives life to the
earth after its death.
He surely is the reviver
of the dead (in the same
way), and He is able to
do all things. (30:50)